24 INTERVIEW
National Lottery retail agents lose out on €13m per year due to bookies betting on Lotto Shane Dempsey – Head of Corporate Affairs
Currently, a legislative loophole allows betting on the outcome of National Lottery draws and games. Seeking an urgent legal solution to this issue, Shane Dempsey, Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Lottery, explains more about how the practice negatively affects both retailers and approximately 4,000 good causes in communities right across Ireland, as well as outlining the initiatives undertaken by the National Lottery to help ensure player protection and responsible play
Q: Firstly, what was the trading environment like in 2021? A: Despite the obvious challenge of the pandemic, 2021 was a particularly strong performance for the National Lottery in retail. The pandemic saw most other opportunities to have fun curtailed; people really engaged with the National Lottery and its products. We say that the National Lottery is where Ireland goes to dream. During the dark days of the pandemic, I think people wanted to dream. Our strong performance is of course driven by our excellent retailer network. We’d like to thank them all for continuing to support our product and the flexibility and commitment they showed during the pandemic. They helped the National Lottery to generate a record breaking €289 million towards the Good Causes Fund at a time when charitable groups and projects needed it the most. We will be officially announcing our financial
results very soon but what we do know is that last year’s record amount for Good Causes marks the sixth consecutive year in which the Good Causes Fund has experienced significant growth as well as a 14% increase from 2020 when €254 million was raised for good causes. This funding supports on average approximately 4,000 good causes annually in communities all across Ireland. Retailers should be immensely proud of this contribution to the National Lottery but also their own communities. Last year also proved to be a record year for our retail partners as the total amount of commission paid to our retail partners came to over €50 million.
Q: How significant is the National Lottery retail network to your overall business? A: Simply put, without our retail network, there would be no National Lottery. With almost 5,500 retail agents, our retail network
Store owner Geoff Scally and his wife Liz, along with staff members Jackie and Paul Corrigan, were delighted to hear that their Centra store in Summerhill, Co. Meath sold the winning Lotto jackpot ticket worth over €4.6 million last February.
ShelfLife June 2022 | www.shelflife.ie
Siobhan and Michael Larkin were pictured celebrating after their store (Larkin’s Gala Service Station, Garryurtneal, Ballina, Killaloe, Co. Clare) sold the winning EuroMillions jackpot ticket worth over €30.9 million last February.
accounts for approximately 85% of all National Lottery ticket sales. Retailers are critical to the success of the National Lottery and the management of the relationship between the National Lottery and our retail players in delivering lottery services in a responsible way. Our retail compliance framework plays an important role in ensuring the sustainability of the National Lottery while protecting the interests of both retailers and players alike. We rely heavily on our retail partners to deliver on our joint responsibilities in this regard. We are constantly evolving our approach with our retailers to ensure we are compliant with the very strict player protection rules that are set out in our licence and monitored by our regulator.
Q: What would the introduction of Lottery Betting Ban mean for Retailers? A: A ban on lottery betting, we estimate, would yield about €13.7 million for our retailers or approximately 25% more commission across the network. It would also see an additional €63million for good causes in communities where our retailers operate. In terms of player protection, most EU countries have banned the practice because of ‘lead-in’ where young people and people at risk are exposed to gambling products without the National Lottery’s regulated rigorous player
A Kilkenny Lotto player won the €8.5 million Lotto jackot in May after purchasing their ticket at Blanchfield’s Centra in Mooncoin. Shop owners Michael and Alice Blanchfield were pictured celebrating with staff members Sinead Quinn, Aileen O’Brien, Fiona Walsh, Margaret Phelan, Melissa Walsh and Susan Quinn following the announcement.
